Soitec appoints chief financial officer to lead strategic refocusing

Soitec of Bernin, near Grenoble, France, which makes engineered substrates including silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafers, has appointed Grégoire Duban as chief financial officer, supporting the ongoing strategic refocusing of activities on the firm's core electronics business (announced on 19 January).

Reporting to CEO Paul Boudre, Duban will also oversee the firm's restructuring. In this role, he will work closely with Thierry Tron, who has been made deputy chief financial officer after having led the management control department for four years then joining the team supervising treasury, financial consolidation and subsidiary accounting from 2009.

Duban will focus on executive management's and the administrative affairs and finance division's plans to restructure the firm, finalize the divestment of the solar systems division's assets, cut costs and boost its financial performance. Duban, a graduate in law (Université d'Assas, Paris) and the holder of a diploma in financial analysis (from the American Institute of Banking in New York), also gained a PMD master's degree in finance from Harvard Business School (Boston). He is also a senior advisor at Grant Thornton Executive. Before joining Soitec, Duban was senior director of finance at Alvarez & Marsal France. Previously, he held CFO/CEO positions at DEKRA Automotive, Diana Ingredients, Gravograph and Sediver, after investment banking roles with Indosuez and the Crédit Agricole group in the USA.

"Duban possesses over 18 years' experience in leading change under corporate restructuring programs at groups in the energy, digital and automotive sectors," says Boudre. "His expertise is focused on improving operating performance, implementing new business models, restructuring operations and refocusing businesses to increase the profitability of groups in transition, such as ours," he adds.

"I would also like to express my gratitude to Olivier Brice, who is leaving his position as chief financial officer to move on to new responsibilities, after supporting Soitec in recent years with tremendous professionalism and outstanding commitment," concludes Boudre.

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